


residue

by EnterpriseCaptain



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Chapter 8, Character Study, Gen, Mike Character Study, i feel like this would fuck mike up a lot so i wrote a quick thing about it, i guess? canonical for one possible timeline anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:22:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24482734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnterpriseCaptain/pseuds/EnterpriseCaptain
Summary: The gunshot rings out sharply through the empty room, ricocheting off of the cold metal of the wall and echoing, echoing, echoing through Mike’s ears, resonating through his skull until it’s all he can hear.(or, a decision from Chapter 8, sharply in focus.)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	residue

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't posted to this account in literal years but i recently played through Until Dawn and have apparently a lot of emotions about Mike, to the extent where i've resurrected my account to post this. what a time. welcome back everybody it's good to see you again.

The gunshot rings out sharply through the empty room, ricocheting off of the cold metal of the wall and echoing, echoing, echoing through Mike’s ears, resonating through his skull until it’s all he can hear. His ears start ringing, and he can see Sam and Ashley yelling, screaming at what’s in front of them, but he can’t hear any of it. He can’t, he can’t hear, and all he can do as he breathes in one, two, three times is stare at Emily in front of him, one eye blankly staring forward and one eye-

Blood rushes back into his head and he snaps back into the freezing reality of the room, feels the weight of the gun still warm in his hand, feels his own breath harsh in the back of his throat. Knows, with a certainty that settles low and heavy and _awful_ in the pit of his stomach, that he is singlehandedly and wholeheartedly responsible for the sight staring him back in the face.

Ashley is still yelling, sobbing in the corner.

“Oh, shit,” he says, bringing his shaking hands to his head and taking a wobbly step backwards. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…” And he can’t stop talking, can’t stop because hearing his own voice reminds him that yes, he is the one that did this, and yes, there is no going back. “What the fuck did I just do?”

 _What you had to do_ , the voice in his head reminds him, as always. Not exactly a comfort, but a constant, it pushes back at the clawing panic that scrapes at the edges of his mind, that yells _she was your friend and you killed her you killed her you killed her you KILLED HER_

“ Fuck... fuck... fuck, fuck, fuck...”

 _You protected them,_ says the voice, low and certain, and how fucked up is it how fast he’s becoming okay with this?

“Okay, okay, it's over... It's over.” Ashley whines, still curled up in the corner of the room, and Sam is staring at him with a horrified expression – no, that’s wrong. It’s fear. She’s scared of him.

“God…” she says, back against the counter like he’s a rabid animal.

“You guys are safe,” says Mike, half to reassure himself and half for Sam, and maybe if he says it enough times it’ll be true, it’ll quiet the howl constantly in the back of his mind pushing him forward, pushing him to act to run to fight to shoot to die-

“You guys are safe,” Mike says again. “It’s a safe room guys. I had to do it! I had to do it!”

 _You had to do it_ , the voice says. _Had to do it so they wouldn’t have to._ And suddenly Mike has to leave, has to get out of this room, has to get away from Ashley’s quiet whimpers and Sam’s wary stare and Emily’s – and Emily – and-

“Okay. I'm going to get the key from Josh. I'll... I'll come back here. You guys are safe,” he says, one more time. Third time’s the charm, after all. “It’s over.”

Sam makes a halfhearted motion to stop him from leaving, but he pushes out the door anyway. Adrenaline still rushing through his entire body, he has to leave, has to has to has to-

And then he’s alone, alone in the freezing basement of the manor. Alone with a gun and a crushing weight in his chest and a voice in his head that says _You had to._

Hands shaking, he turns the gun in his hand over and over and over.

“WHEN?!” he yells, suddenly, breaking the silence of the hallway so that maybe he’ll stop feeling so crushed by the air in his lungs. “WHEN IS IT OVER?”

 _When you have done enough,_ says the voice. _When they are safe. When everything else is dead._

Mike fixes the gun more firmly in his hand, takes in a deep shuddering breath that goes through the bottom of his lungs and expands his whole body.

_When you die so they don’t have to._

Mike clicks the safety off the gun and sets off into the night.


End file.
